At First To Last

Over the last couple of days, two first basemen who were 38 years old last season were signed as free agents to, in all probably, start at first base in 2003. Those two are Fred McGriff (going from the Cubs to the Dodgers) and Mark Grace (who re-sigend with the D-Backs).

It made me wonder how unusual it was to have a a starting first baseman who was that age and how dicey a proposition it was to sign one. So I did a little research (thanks to Sean Leahman's database). I found that there have only been nine other 38-year-old starting first baseman in baseball history. Here is what they did in their 38th and 39th years (with McGriff and Grace's 2002 numbers; Also, OPS+ is Baseball-Reference.com's OPS adjusted for park and era as a percentage of the average):

At First To Last

Over the last couple of days, two first basemen who were 38 years old last season were signed as free agents to, in all probably, start at first base in 2003.  Those two are Fred McGriff (going from the Cubs to the Dodgers) and Mark Grace (who re-sigend with the D-Backs).

It made me wonder how unusual it was to have a a starting first baseman who was that age and how dicey a proposition it was to sign one.  So I did a little research (thanks to Sean Leahman's database).  I found that there have only been nine other 38-year-old starting first baseman in baseball history.  Here is what they did in their 38th and 39th years (with McGriff and Grace's 2002 numbers; Also, OPS+ is Baseball-Reference.com's OPS adjusted for park and era as a percentage of the average):

Name